A Day (Poem) Q/A Grade-12

Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. How does the poet describe the morning sun in the first stanza?

→ In the first stanza, the poet describes the morning sun rising in the sky, deep violet colour like amethyst in the steeples of the churches and the quick natural process as squirrels' run. It is presenting as the stripe of ribbons which refers to the rays of the sun.

b. What does the line ‘The news like squirrels ran’ mean?

→ The line ‘The news like squirrels ran’ is an example of simile which means the process of sunrise is very quickly like the squirrel’s run. This line describes the natural process of sunrise in the morning time. This process is as quick as the run of squirrels that makes everyone realise the arrival of morning.

c. What do you understand by the line ‘The hills untied their bonnets’? 

→ By the line 'The hills United their bonnets', we understand the natural changes that appear in the hills because of the presence of the sunrise. Before sunrise the hills are covered with mist like wearing bonnets which is cleared by the rays of sun after sunrise. As the sun rises, the heat of the sun rays unties the mists over the hills. The hills become clean and clear.

d. Is the speaker watching the morning sun? Why? Why not? 

→ No, the speaker isn't watching the morning sun because in this poem he or she talks about both sunrise and sunset. These two activities are not possible to happen at the same time. He/ she is just narrating the event.

e. How does the sunset?

→ The speaker doesn’t know how the sun sets. It sets quite mysteriously and confuses the speaker much. He/she has less confidence in describing the sunset. According to him/her, the sun's rays seem purple and yellow during sunset time. When the sun sets,  it takes away all the happiness and joy of daytime and it will change into sadness and darkness.

 

Reference to the context

a. What, according to the speaker, is a day? 

→ According to the speaker, a day is the time of joy and happiness. It is a perfect blend of various changes in nature. Here sunrise refers to the birth or creation and sunset refers to the death or end. So, day time has various literal and symbolic meanings regarding tremendous changes in lifetime from birth till death and the changes in nature during growing period.

b. What purpose does the hyphen in the first line serve in the poem?

→ The hyphen (-) in the first line serves break or silence. In this poem, the poet has used the hyphen to create a more pronounced pause in reading. The speaker thinks what and how to tell about sunrise and to give more emphasis in the description of sunrise, he/she uses hyphen to pause at the end of the first line.

c. What makes this poem lyrical and sonorous? Discuss. 

→ Different literary devices like alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm etc. and the personal feeling and emotion make the poem lyrical and sonorous. is a wonderful in the sense that it is full of both literal and symbolic meanings.

 

d. Who are the target audience of the speaker? Why? 

→ Here, the speaker of the poem is a newly born child who is innocent. He/ she describes a day along with two beautiful aspects (sunrise and sunset) of this natural world through his/her perspectives. By describing these two natural processes of sunrise and sunset, he/she wants to make clear about natural phenomenon to all humankind. So, the target audience of the speaker is both children and adults. 

 

e. The poem seems to describe a day for children. How would the adult people respond to this poem? Discuss this poem with your parents/guardians and write the answer based on their responses.

→ ……

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